37 Interactive Chairman Rants on WeChat About Employees Resting on Saturdays, Gets Roasted Into Oblivion by Netizens

When your boss posts on WeChat Moments asking "why do employees rest on Saturdays?" and the like count stays at zero — this might be the most suffocating workplace moment of 2024.

The story is straightforward: the chairman of 37 Interactive Entertainment (三七互娱) allegedly took to his personal WeChat Moments to question why his employees rest on Saturdays. The implication? Not working weekends means you're unmotivated, not a team player, and unworthy of being a "fellow voyager" in the company's journey. Once the screenshots hit NGA forum, the internet collectively lost it.

The very first comment set the tone perfectly: "Wait, what does 37 even make again? I've heard of them but can't quite remember... Are they the ones behind those pay-to-win web games?" — A company so obsessed with controlling employees' weekends that people can barely remember what they produce. Peak irony.

In response to the chairman's "soul-searching question," netizens unleashed their fury. One person cut straight to the bone: "Because employees actually have their own lives." A statement so simple and yet so devastatingly powerful in the context of corporate guilt-tripping over overtime culture.

Other commenters cranked the rage to eleven. One wrote: "This exploitative POS actually expects workers to sympathize with him? Share your money and your side chicks and maybe we'll talk." Another mocked: "Looking for 'like-minded co-voyagers with aligned values'? Translation: finding gullible slaves who'll work themselves to the bone and then apologize for not doing more." Someone else dropped the classic meme line: "Really love that quote from Young Elder Xiao — 'Like your f**king head!'" (a popular NGA expression of contempt).

Several users took aim at 37's notoriously ad-driven business model: "This is a user-acquisition company with basically zero R&D costs. Working 8 days a week wouldn't help. Why not enslave AI to churn out more of those Jackie-Chan-wielding-a-giant-sword ads instead?" They suggested reading this story alongside the recent news of "37 Interactive crying about rising ad costs" for maximum comedic effect. Another user simply remarked: "37 being 37, nothing surprising here."

Someone also dug up the infamous remarks by Jia Guolong, founder of restaurant chain Xibei, who had faced similar backlash for glorifying overwork culture. The commenter observed: "A lot of these so-called bosses don't think like employers — they think like feudal landlords. An actual boss pays for your time and leaves you alone. These 'landlord-brained' types feel like they're being robbed every time they see an employee resting."

The most viral comment of all was this gem: "I can only suggest he go back to the American Civil War era — plenty of plantation owners there who share his values and would make great company." Another user referenced a gaming urban legend, quipping that "someone should go practice their assassination sword techniques outside 37's headquarters" — a nod to the classic tale of a disgruntled player practicing "Flying Sky Combo Slash" (a MapleStory skill) outside rival studio NetDragon's office. Peak Chinese gaming community literature.

Notably, the original post highlighted one silver lining: "At least this drivel got zero likes from bootlickers, which is commendable." In other words, when the chairman made his plea for weekend work on WeChat, not a single employee hit the like button. Silence was their loudest answer. This is probably what baffles the chairman most — you posted on Moments, so why didn't anyone like it? Because, as one commenter quipped, "they really do have a cow" (a Chinese idiom meaning they know what's actually at stake for themselves).

As of now, 37 Interactive has made no public statement on the matter. But here's the thing — when a gaming company's chairman makes headlines not for a blockbuster release but for questioning whether employees deserve weekends off, that alone is the industry's most perfect parable.